It's Always Been You
by unbreakable86
Summary: Having lived within the bland cardboard walls of heterosexuality her whole life, it had not ever occurred to Elly Conway to look beyond them. She had never questioned her own sexuality until the day Chloe Brennan had kissed her. Set after Elly's return from Sydney at the end of July. Chelly endgame.


**Disclaimer: I do not own anything but the ideas in my head.**

**A/N 1: My second try at a Chelly story. The first one was so angsty that I couldn't bring myself to finish it yet. :D**

**This story is set sixish weeks after Elly's return to Erinsborough in July. It does not follow the show's timeline nor does it follow its plotline after her return. Just a random fluff piece that had to get out.**

**Thoughts are in italics.**

**A reminder that English is not my first language, so if you find any mistakes, be warm and welcoming - they like gin tonics.**

**I hope you like it.**

**Happy reading. x**

**xxxx**

"_I'll be your dream, I'll be your wish, I'll be your fantasy. I'll be your hope, I'll be your love, be everything that you need. I'll love you more with every breath truly, madly, deeply do. I will be strong, I will be faithful 'cause I'm counting on a new beginning, a reason for living, a deeper meaning, yeah. I wanna stand with you on a mountain, I wanna bathe with you in the sea. I wanna lay like this forever until the sky falls down on me."_

Chloe Brennan knew that she was staring. Chloe Brennan also knew that it was rude to stare, but her ocean blue orbs stayed firmly trained on the figure curled up on her couch; with one leg tucked underneath her and the other stretched out on the length of the sofa, papers in her lap, Elly Conway was preparing her classes for the upcoming week, scribbling away on her notepad and marking things along the way, an adorable crinkle creasing her brow as the brunette was deeply focused on her work. Elly started worrying her bottom lip as she paused, her pen briefly hovering over the white paper, and Chloe's eyes zeroed in on the action, her gaze glazing over as she watched that plushness disappear between impeccably white front teeth.

Chloe jumped when the water kettle's high-pitched whistle reached her ears and cut through the comfortable silence in the room, the blonde quickly tearing her eyes away from the other woman while trying to shake off her Elly-induced daze and pouring the boiling water on the tea bags that were waiting in the two ceramic mugs on the counter.

Carefully balancing the mugs, Chloe made her way back to the couch, her bare feet padding softly against the wooden floor of the house. Two sets of ocean blue pools met when the blonde set them down onto the coffee table, Chloe's heart doing a tiny backflip as it always did when the other woman looked at her, and Elly gave her a small smile, "Thank you."

Trying to ignore the butterflies that were so persistently fluttering in her belly, the blonde smiled back, "You're welcome."

Chloe grabbed her own paperwork from the coffee table and flopped back down into her corner of the couch, her back against the armrest, facing Elly. Ever since the brunette had come back from staying with Liz in Sydney, the two women had rekindled their fragile friendship, the initial tension between them having slowly seeped away and turning into something much more beautiful than they had ever shared - except for… "What's on your mind?"

The blonde looked up from the papers that lay forgotten in her lap, finding curious cerulean eyes imploringly looking back into hers, a perfectly sculpted eyebrow raised as Elly stared at her.

The muscles in Chloe's throat bobbed as she swallowed hard, trying to force the images of their night together out of her head, "Just that I'm glad that we are in a good place again. I've really missed you."

The brunette beamed happily at those words, cobalt orbs gleaming with joy, "I've missed you too, Chlo."

Falling back into their comfortable silence, they returned their attention to their respective paperwork, simply enjoying each other's company, even if they were just working. The inner peace that Chloe felt whenever she was around Elly, the calmness and ease that spread through her body was something that she had never felt before in her life and she cherished it deeply.

Since the brunette had returned to Erinsborough and told her that dating was not on her agenda, Chloe, despite feeling hopeful about not being full-on rejected, had decided that she would respect Elly's boundaries and to love the other woman from afar, helping her to settle back in and making her feel as comfortable as she could.

_Love is patient_ had been going through her head like a mantra in these past five weeks, so this time around she would wait for Elly to make the first move, if she did at all. Meanwhile, Chloe pampered the brunette every chance she got, tending to her every whim and craving, making her feel loved and appreciated. She was sure that things would eventually work out between them if she just continued to be patient, as well as gentle and unyieldingly attentive in showing the brunette her affection.

_Love is patient, Chloe._

xxxx

Regret was an awful thing to live with. As was denial, and Elly Conway had been living with both for longer than she cared to admit. Caressing the soft swell of her baby bump lovingly, the brunette's work lay discarded in front of her as she was studying Chloe's every movement out of the corner of her eye while still pretending to be deeply immersed in her papers.

The brunette's thoughts were running rampant in her head - just like they had been ever since she had left Erinsborough to stay with her mother. The epiphany she had in her absence had hit her square in the face like a ton of metaphorical bricks, the headache it had caused, however, inciting the impression that those bricks had actually broken her nose and not having been metaphorical at all.

Having lived within the bland cardboard walls of heterosexuality her whole life, it had not ever occurred to Elly to look beyond them. She had never questioned her own sexuality until the day Chloe had kissed her. After that moment of feeling the spark of the other woman's soft lips on hers, those walls had just crumpled up into useless paper balls, leaving her in an impossible maze of interwoven paths that she had no idea how to walk.

Elly had felt like a deer on ice for months after that, not knowing what to do and instead throwing herself into her relationship with Mark that she at some point knew would not go anywhere, sleeping with Chloe, and then getting pregnant with Shaun's baby because she was unable to admit to herself what she had known for a long time. Elly Conway was in love with Chloe Brennan.

The brunette had spent months pushing those feelings as far away from her as she could while the blonde just kept loving and supporting her unconditionally, making Elly love Chloe even more, even if she kept repressing it. Looking back on this time now, the brunette felt the guilt consistently gnawing away at her, like ice on her insides, pressing down on her with its heavy weight. It haunted her and Elly was determined not to be that person anymore. She was tired of running, wanting to look back on the person that she used to be and see her in sepia tones, not perfect color, her desire to turn things around and make everything better with Chloe almost overwhelming.

The brunette started to feel a pull in her neck and she shifted on the couch, stretching her neck and legs until ugly little cracks could be heard from her toes. Chloe raised an eyebrow at her, "Long day?"

Contemplating her answer, Elly decided to go with the truth, "Well, it certainly has become a little harder to stand all day, but I will survive."

The blonde discarded her paperwork on the coffee table and let her hands fall into her lap, wriggling her fingers playfully, "Then gimme your foot."

When the initial fog of confusion had lifted, Elly shook her head, "No, Chlo. I'm good. You really don't have to."

Blue eyes narrowed, "Well, I really want to. You had a rough day, so give me that stinky foot, Conway. I don't care which one."

Elly's mouth fell open in mock shock at the comment, the brunette playfully flinging her pen at the other woman, who dodged the attack at the last second and giggled adorably.

With her stomach doing a tiny backflip, the teacher smiled blissfully and finally settled into the cushions behind her, gingerly placing her right foot into Chloe's lap.

When the blonde's thumbs touched her sole for the first time with just the lightest pressure, all her thoughts flew out the window as she closed her eyes and let out a tiny moan at how good it felt, hence not seeing the hot flush that settled in Chloe's cheeks at hearing the sound, the blonde's eyes going wide as she stared, but eager to continue her ministrations so as not to give Elly the impression that something was wrong.

Ocean blue orbs fluttered open again and Chloe's quickly averted her eyes; the brunette gazed at the woman curled up opposite her, taking in every delicate feature of Chloe's pale face, perfectly sculpted eyebrows pulled together in concentration as the blonde massaged away the remainders of a long day. With her focus so intently on Chloe, Elly's thoughts had time to wander again and the brunette had no idea how to address them.

Yes, Elly Conway was hopelessly in love with Chloe Brennan, and she did not know where to start expressing her feelings. She did not know if she wanted to start by explaining the comfort that she felt whenever they were together, the all-encompassing feeling of safety overcoming her even now, when they were just sitting on the couch opposite each other in their yoga shorts with their naked calves brushing together and the delicious pressure of Chloe's thumbs digging into the sole of her foot. Or should she start at the beginning, elaborating to the blonde everything she had felt since their first kiss and even before that? No matter how many times Elly turned those questions over in her head, she never came to any conclusion of what would be the best approach. This was the predicament that she found herself in now, staring at the other woman from a distance, hoping that the words to express her intense emotions would eventually find her, releasing her of the feeling that her tongue was sticking to the roof of her mouth whenever she thought about her endless love for the other woman, leaving her tongue-tied.

Elly's musings were interrupted when the Chloe-induced eruption of butterflies that were fluttering in her belly changed into something else, a more intense, sinking feeling that ended with a little punch to her gut. With her hand flying up to her small bump once again, Elly sat up straight and turned, placing her feet firmly on the ground, "Woah!"

On the other end of the couch Chloe perked up, immediately scrambling over to the brunette, "What is it, Elly? Are you okay? Is something wrong?"

Taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, Elly looked up and found that the other woman was awfully close, the cerulean of her eyes deep but currently touched by storm clouds in her worried state, so the brunette was quick to soothe her friend, "I'm fine, Chlo. The little one just thought it might be a good idea to turn all the way around in the womb. At least that's what it felt like."

Chloe's eyes flitted from Elly's down to the soft swell of her bump, the blonde's lip catching between her front teeth in contemplation. When two pairs of blue orbs met again, the brunette could see uncertainty and insecurity swimming in misty eyes and she tilted her head, "Chlo? What is it?"

An audible gulp reached Elly's ears and the teacher pressed her lips together, amused at seeing Chloe so nervous. The blonde kept chewing her bottom lip, her eyes flickering across her face, before hesitantly stammering, "I.. uh… I mean… can I…"

Rolling her eyes at herself, Chloe looked down at Elly's belly again and the brunette understood, a happy grin splitting her face as she gingerly took one of the blonde's hands into her own, guiding it to her bump.

When Chloe's warm palm was resting against her, her fingers splayed out against the fabric of her shirt, Elly put her own hand on top, grateful to be able to bask in some skin-on-skin contact with the other woman, even if it was just their hands touching above her oversized t-shirt.

Climbing off the couch, Chloe kneeled in front of the brunette and Elly swallowed nervously, trying hard to keep her thoughts appropriate, because Chloe Brennan kneeling at her feet, almost between her legs, was nearly too much for the teacher to handle and she had to fight back a fiery blush that threatened to crawl up her neck.

The brunette watched Chloe lean in, whispering conspiratorially to her swollen belly, "Are you giving your momma trouble, swimming around in there so freely, Peanut?"

Turning her head, the blonde placed her ear against Elly's bump, as if waiting for an answer, and the brunette prayed to the heavens that the other woman could not hear or even feel the way her heart was hammering against her ribcage at their proximity.

"The peanut says that it's so warm and comfy in there that it makes them so happy they want to dance."

Watching Chloe have a full-blown conversation with her unborn child made Elly melt, leaving her in a pile of mush that had just fallen for the blonde even more, and as if on autopilot, the teacher raised her free hand, threading her fingers through thick, flaxen locks.

She watched Chloe's eyes flutter closed at her ministrations, the blonde relaxing against Elly as her arms stretched out along the teacher's thighs. Elly could see the tension leave the other woman's body and she softly smiled down at the top of a blonde head, making sure to massage Chloe's scalp lightly while playing with curly tresses.

The sensations coursing through her body were almost overwhelming, Elly's brain fogging up at the blonde's closeness and her scent, a whiff of mango shampoo and body lotion hitting her nostrils and making her feel lightheaded.

It would be so easy to just tilt Chloe's head up and fuse their lips together, letting go of all the yearning and kissing the other woman again like she had wanted to for _months_. Hyper-aware of the skin of Chloe's arms brushing her bare lower thighs, Elly ground her jaw in order not to think about how the blonde's skin had felt when their whole naked bodies had been sliding together under the covers of her bed, their eyes connected while Chloe's hands and mouth had left a trail of fire against her skin wherever she had touched her.

Gulping audibly, Elly shook her head to clear it from the inappropriate thoughts, scolding herself as she felt a light twitch between her legs. The brunette took a few deep breaths to calm her suddenly raging libido, determined to force these thoughts out of her head and settling on just threading her fingers through flaxen curls and relishing in the feeling of being so close to her love again. Everything else would come with time and patience.

_Love is patient, Elly_.

xxxx

A pleasant tingling spread from Chloe's scalp through her whole body at Elly's tender ministrations, the blonde feeling the pent up tension from the past few weeks seep out of her through her tiptoes and fingertips.

There was a gentle gurgling in the brunette's belly paired with the steady beating of her heart and Chloe felt herself melt into a puddle with each passing second.

The blonde's fingers twitched with the overwhelming desire to stroke Elly's upper thighs, the angle perfect from where she was kneeling on the ground, but Chloe refrained, trying to restrain her desire to touch the other woman and instead just resting her head against a swollen belly and relishing in the feeling of long, smooth fingers playing with her hair.

xxxx

Elly did not know when she had become even more affectionate than she already was, but the all-encompassing need to touch overcame her everytime she was with Chloe, the brunette's urge to just feel the blonde overwhelming while at the same time she felt like a pervert because the other woman was not hers.

Chloe had started playing with the hem of the brunette's oversized shirt, her thumbs and forefingers fiddling with the seam and making Elly smile. Their peace was disrupted, however, by another tiny punch to Elly's gut, only a flutter, and Chloe dramatically falling over while holding her jaw, "OW! I'm hit! I'M HIT!"

Rolling her eyes at the blonde's antics, Elly could still not suppress a snort of heartfelt laughter, pulling the other woman back up by her hands, "Stop being silly and get back up here."

Chloe was still giggling uncontrollably, tiny hiccups leaving her mouth as she placed her hand back on Elly's tummy, "You got quite the right hook there, Peanut. Or kick. Or both. Whichever it was, you're quite impressive. Just like your mommy."

The brunette's heart fluttered at those words, but then, with a painful somersault, it leapt into her throat as she watched Chloe lean down to press a tiny kiss to her bump.

Elly's hand went back to a blonde head and Chloe jumped lightly, immediately pulling away, "I'm so sorry. Wow, I didn't mean to do that. Like, at all. Let me just… get back to my end of the couch and forget this ever happened. Yeah, good plan."

Watching the other woman ramble nervously, the brunette could not hold back her beaming grin anymore, lovingly cupping Chloe's jaw and turning her head back to look at her. Confused blue orbs were zeroing in on Elly and the teacher smiled softly, "Well, Miss Brennan. I will have to check you over to make sure that the little one did not cause permanent damage to your face."

Chloe grinned back, "Yeah, that would be absolutely horrifying. My face is pretty flawless."

Raising an eyebrow, the brunette smirked, "Cocky. But true." With her eyes flitting across Chloe's face intently, Elly's thumbs danced along the other woman's jawline while the teacher was pretending to search for non-existent injuries, "It seems like you are doing just fine. The flawlessness is still intact."

A relieved, mocking sigh fell from the blonde's lips, "Oh, thank God."

Their faces were awfully close again, they both noticed, and Elly could see all the details on the other woman's face that she had always wanted to pay closer attention to, but never got the chance. The tiny, soft hairs that lined Chloe's jaw, the little specks of steely grey reflecting in her blue eyes, depending on how they were hit by the light. Her lashes, so long, even without mascara, the blonde having removed her makeup before settling down. Chloe's scent, mango with a hint of warm vanilla mixing into it, and Elly could feel the other woman's warm breath on her face. The brunette's own cerulean orbs briefly darted down, the two women's lips hovering close now, almost close enough to touch, and Elly finally gave in to what she had wanted to do for _months_, especially since they had spent their night together.

The air between them was prickling with tension and when their lips finally met, this tension released in simultaneous moans that were tumbling from the women's mouths, their lips sliding together in that old, familiar dance they had been caught in so many times, but that still felt brand new all over again.

Elly's heart started pounding even faster when Chloe's hands landed on her knees, nimble fingers tickling around and hooking into the brunette's kneecaps, a low moan rumbling in Elly's chest when the other woman yanked her forward on the couch and pushed herself up and on her knees in order to deepen their kiss.

The brunette was grateful to be sitting down at Chloe's determined display of control because she felt her knees go weak in an instant, her right hand going around to cup the blonde's neck while her left stayed on Chloe's cheek.

Soft hands wandered up the outsides of Elly's thighs, her nails dragging lightly on their way back down, and the two women whimpered when their tongues met for the first time after almost five months. Chloe's eyes flew open at the sound, the blonde hastily breaking the kiss and pulling away from the other woman, her hand coming up to cover her mouth, "Oh, no! I'm so, _so_ sorry, Elly."

While Chloe was scooting away, shell-shocked, Elly's eyes were still closed and her lips puckered, the brunette chasing the other woman's lips in her daze. When she was met with nothing but air, realization dawned on her and her own blue orbs fluttered open, "Huh?"

Chloe was torn between frowning in confusion and smiling at Elly's cuteness, but her bewilderment over their kiss remained insistently on the forefront of her brain, the blonde ready to smack herself over the head, guilt painfully tugging at her insides, "I shouldn't have kissed you. I'm _so_ sorry."

With her glazed-over eyes slowly coming back into focus, the brunette shook her head vehemently, "Chlo, my lips were moving toward yours just as quickly as yours were moving toward mine. It's okay."

Chloe's eyebrows knitted together in an adorable frown, "They were?"

Elly nodded vigorously, "Yes, Chloe. They were. I wanted to kiss you."

The crease in the blonde's forehead deepened, "You did?"

Starting to find the other woman's befuddlement utterly endearing, the brunette smiled softly, "Yes, I did."

Chloe began worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, her eyes suddenly becoming as big as saucers, "Why?"

Pinching the bridge of her nose nervously, Elly heaved a deep sigh, "Where to start?"

Chloe grabbed her mug from the coffee table to have something to hold on to and implored, "At the beginning? Because I sure as hell am not following right now."

"I'm in love with you," the brunette blurted without thinking, flinching visibly when Chloe choked on her tea.

"Woah, that's not the beginning," the blonde wheezed after she was done coughing painfully, "That's a whole lot of something else, but not the beginning."

As the initial panic of her unexpected confession wore off, Elly took a few deep, even breaths to calm her jittery nerves, her usual levelheadedness out of the window with Chloe so close and her inquiring gaze so firmly on her. Normally the brunette would shy away from being scrutinized so intently, but she knew that the blonde wanted, needed, and deserved an explanation for her sudden outburst, "Isn't it, Chlo? Think about it. I think this is exactly where it all started. With a confession of love. Or even before that."

The two women thought back to the day Chloe had walked in on Elly reading the Christmas card she had written for the brunette and both their hearts stuttered, remembering the moment when their eyes had met across the room and realization had hit both of them; Chloe realizing that Elly had read the card and the blonde's words slowly sinking in and finally hitting the brunette like a ton of bricks.

_I am truly, madly, and deeply in love with you_.

Those were the words that had brought a fundamental shift to their relationship, no matter what had been simmering underneath the surface up to that point. With those words, both their lives had changed drastically and they both had found themselves at a point of no return.

Blinking owlishly at the other woman, Chloe took another big gulp of her now only lukewarm tea to chase the dryness in her throat away, "B-Before that?"

Elly nodded, "Yes, before that. I didn't know what it meant at the time, but seeing you getting so cozy with Pierce made my stomach churn. It made me sick to my stomach, but I brushed it off as being worried about my friend. Turns out it was so much more than that. I think I loved you even then."

Chloe was just staring, cobalt orbs wide with disbelief, and the brunette continued, "Turns out I'm quite the jealous type. I've never been, but you seem to bring out my possessive side, Miss Brennan. It was quite a foreign feeling in the beginning and it scared the hell out of me, so I pushed those emotions down, along with everything else, and closed them off. Then you kissed me and everything came crashing back down on me again. I was so confused that I ran off in the opposite direction and proposed to Mark the next day. Everything that came afterwards, us sleeping together, me marrying Mark, were the most destructive things I've ever done in my life. I destroyed so much on my way to where I am now, twenty-six weeks pregnant, but still hopelessly in love with you, Chloe Brennan. It was always inevitable, me getting here. Because you are my happy ending, and my one true love."

Grinding her jaw, the blonde had intently listened to Elly's words, albeit unable to wrap her head around them. Everything she had ever dreamed of coming out of the other woman's mouth was what she had just said to her, but Chloe had a hard time catching up. Her heart was screaming at her to just rush over to her love and kiss the hell out of her, but a tiny voice in her head held her back, encouraging her to question everything that she had just heard. These conflicting emotions made the blonde get up from the floor and start pacing the living room, "Okay. What happened to, 'I don't love you Chloe. We will never ever be together!'? I told you that night that you were in denial, and while I admit that I might have been a little too pushy on this matter, I can't help but ask myself what happened to that Elly? What changed?"

Seeing her love's doubts reflect in sad blue eyes cut through Elly's heart like a hot blade, but she was determined to convince the blonde that her feelings were sorted and genuine, "I left that Elly back in Sydney. I thought she'd be better off with my mother."

Chloe threw the brunette an incredulous glare, "Really? I thought I was the one cracking inappropriate jokes at inopportune times."

With the blonde still pacing the room, Elly felt like she was about to get whiplash from turning her head back and forth as she followed Chloe with her eyes. Shaking her head clear, the teacher slowly got up and stepped in front of her love just as she was about to turn around again, making the blonde's pacing come to a screeching halt. They were standing only mere inches apart and Elly's forefinger was twitching with her desire to just stretch it and brush it along the back of the other woman's hand, but she refrained, "Maybe you rubbed off on me? You know, there are studies that show that people who are really close pick up each other's habits."

Elly playfully waggled her eyebrows at Chloe, who frowned, "You know that this is not funny, right?"

Clearing her throat and pressing her lips together, the brunette nodded, "Yes, I know. I was just trying to lighten the mood. I'm sorry."

With a heavy sigh, Chloe nervously brushed her hair back and out of her face, her gaze locking onto the brunette teacher once again, and she insisted, "What changed? What happened to that Elly?"

Finally giving in to her desire, Elly's forefinger stretched and featherlightly brushed along Chloe's hand before she took it into her own, "Can we sit back down, please?"

The blonde swallowed hard, the tendons in her neck flexing, and Elly's sudden urge to put her lips there at the sight, her teeth, was only washed away by the elation that she felt when the other woman nodded and guided her back to the sofa.

The two women were sitting a lot closer now, facing each other with one leg tucked underneath them, and Elly had pulled the blonde's hand into her lap and was playing with her fingers, "The Elly who said all those things to you was a mask. She was scared and her better judgement was telling her to run, so she did. She knew, deep down, that she was hopelessly in love with you, but she was afraid. That Elly had her dream wedding planned out in her head when she was five years old. She had dreamt of having a husband, three children, and a perfect career all her life. That Elly wanted the picture perfect family so much that she was forcing her relationship with Mark. It didn't even occur to her that a picture perfect family didn't have to be like that. Society and her own inability to look over the rim of her heterosexual tea cup prevented her from seeing the bigger picture. She couldn't go and pursue her feelings for you because of what she thought it would make her. She wasn't aware of the fact that it really didn't make her anything. That she was still the same person who was just in love with a woman. Her denial, however, resulted in a string of horrible events and after having broken two hearts and ending up pregnant with a baby that was conceived during a one-night-stand, that Elly left town and did a whole lot of soul searching, and now here we are."

Tears had gathered in Chloe's eyes while she was listening, misty, cerulean orbs now looking at the brunette through thick eyelashes, and Elly reached up to wipe the tears from pale cheeks. Worrying her bottom lip, deep in thought and contemplation, the blonde finally spoke, motioning up and down the brunette's body, "And who is this Elly? The Elly who is now sitting here in front of me?"

Huffing out a nervous laugh, Elly squeezed Chloe's hand affectionately, "This Elly still doesn't have any idea what she is doing." When she saw the blonde's shoulders fall in disappointment, she hastily reached out and tilted her chin back up, "No, look at me and listen for just a little bit longer. This Elly may not have a clue what she is doing, or what's going to happen, but at least she knows a lot more than the Elly who ran off to Sydney."

When Chloe nodded in agreement, Elly's relief washed over her like a wave, warmth simmering in her belly at the other woman's patience, and the brunette continued, "I love you, Chloe. I am _in_ love with you. Everything that happened between us made me realize something that I've been trying so hard to push down, which is that you, Chloe Brennan, are my safe haven. You are everything to me. That someone people always keep talking about? The one that takes up all the space in your heart and makes you want to burst with happiness? The one that takes away all your fears by just looking at you? It's you, Chloe. You are the best part of me. You make me feel like I can do anything as long as I have the courage to try. And no matter how hard things got, you have always been by my side, supporting me and looking in the same direction, pulling me through. I can't promise you to always know what I'm doing. I mean, we already established the fact that I'm clueless. Neither can I promise you that I won't take two steps backward while I'm trying to move forward. What I do know, however, is that I really want to give us a chance and see where this goes. Because even if I don't know anything else, there is one thing that I am irreversibly and unequivocally certain of. You are it for me, Chloe. It's always been you."

The blonde sat there, shell-shocked and unable to do or say anything. Her brain had short-circuited and left her unable to move. Her synapses just did not forward the signal that was coming from her brain, which was that she could not sit there in silence while Elly just had bared her soul, but her tongue and mouth just did not move.

Being hit with a wall of silence after her confession, Elly started squirming in her seat nervously, her mouth feeling like cotton and blood rushing in her ears. Her throat was closing up with impending tears, the fear of having waited too long to say these words suddenly overwhelming, and she choked, "Please say something."

Chloe uselessly opened and closed her mouth a few times, like a fish out of water, but nothing came out. Words fell short and when Elly dropped her hand to wipe away her tears, the only thing the blonde could do was scoot closer and do it for her. She took the brunette's face into both hands, cupping her cheeks with all the love and reassurance she could muster, and wiped the wetness away with the pads of her thumbs. Elly loosely wrapped her hands around Chloe's wrists, her thumbs brushing against fair skin and feeling the other woman's pulse thrum steadily, helping her to calm the raging storm inside her. Swallowing hard, Elly was just about to take a breath in order to apologize for unloading everything at once on the other woman when she felt a soft pair of lips on hers, once again. With a strangled sob, her tears were now falling freely as she kissed Chloe back, their lips sliding together in perfect sync as the two women poured everything they felt into it.

Their tongues briefly brushed before they parted, their breathing slightly ragged as their foreheads rested against each other and two pairs of blue eyes fluttered back open simultaneously and Chloe whispered, "I love you too, Elly. I always have and always will. It's always been you for me, too."

A relieved whimper left the brunette's mouth with a fresh wave of tears that were pouring from her eyes and down her cheeks, and Elly leaned back in to chastely press their lips together one more time, "There is so much that we need to talk about and try to figure out, Chlo."

Smiling softly, Chloe nuzzled their noses together, "Well, luckily we don't need to figure everything out at once and immediately. We have all the time in the world. Well, I don't, but that shouldn't stand in our way." Chloe winked playfully, but cowered lightly at the chastising glare she received in return. "The fact that you are here, telling me all this, being so open and honest about your feelings, means more to me than you could ever imagine. I have loved you for so long and while it does twinge a little to know how much time we've lost, it's a good thing we did because it led us here. I am ready to walk this road with you. I told you that night that I could never imagine spending my life with only one person, until I fell in love with you. Nothing has changed for me. I am still all in. And we don't have to figure everything out at once as long as we are on the same page when it comes to our relationship."

Placing another series of chaste kisses to the blonde's lips, Elly mumbled, "I'm all in, Chloe. I want nothing more than to make you happy and to be with you for as long as you'll have me. I will always be by your side, if you let me."

Chloe played with thick, chestnut curls that were framing the other woman's jaw and she beamed, "Gladly."

Their lips met again, a little more heated this time as tongues started exploring, making both women moan softly. Feeling heat simmering low in her belly, the blonde slowed them down and eventually broke the kiss, which came with a disgruntled noise from Elly. Huffing out a laugh, the blonde reasoned, "As nice as this is, I think we should slow this down a little because I for one don't know how long I can hold myself back before jumping you."

Elly waggled her eyebrows again and Chloe found that she liked the brunette's playful side, "Would that be so bad? Nothing you haven't seen before and with David and Aaron on vacation and Kyle at Amy's place-" The eyeroll she received in return before she had even finished her sentence made Elly huff out a laugh and she added, "Okay, how about a fresh round of tea and Netflix, for starters?"

The blonde brushed their noses together once again, "I'll make the tea. You pick the movie." With that, and with one more brief kiss to the brunette's lips Chloe was bounding back into the kitchen area to put the water on.

xxxx

Chloe's kisses were something else, Elly realized again later that night. They were deliberate and methodical. Chloe kissed skillfully and with singular focus. Her kisses were life-altering and made the world around them vanish. Thirty minutes into the movie, everything had disappeared into tongue, teeth, and hands as Elly had straddled Chloe's hips in the narrow space of the sofa, her hands braced on both sides of a blonde head on the arm rest as they kissed and explored, tentatively and carefully with Elly's hot breath on the skin of Chloe's neck, the brunette mesmerized by the vein there that was bulging with the other woman's racing pulse. Heat was simmering within them like a pot of molten lava, the two women lost in their connection as _Mrs. Doubtfire_ was playing in the background, Robin Williams' voice imitating accents fading away and making room for the blood rushing in their ears.

Elly and Chloe were so wrapped up in each other in their cocoon of love that they did not hear Kyle and Amy enter the house after all and make their way out backwards when they saw the two women on the couch. They did not notice the sky opening its floodgates, gallons of rainwater pouring out of the clouds and splashing onto the ground, a heavy thunderstorm rolling in with lightning licking at the dark sky. Neither did they perk up an hour later, when the TV screen was flashing its bright light throughout the room with Netflix asking them if they were still watching.

"_Oh, can't you see it, baby? You don't have to close your eyes, 'cause it's standing right before you. All that you need will surely come. I'll be your dream, I'll be your wish, I'll be your fantasy. I'll be your hope, I'll be your love, be everything that you need. I'll love you more with every breath truly, madly, deeply do. I wanna stand with you on a mountain, I wanna bathe with you in the sea. I wanna lay like this forever until the sky falls down on me."_

The End.

**xxxx**

**A/N 2: Thank you for reading. The quotes in the beginning and the end are taken from the song **_**Truly, Madly, Deeply**_** in the ballad version of Cascada. Obvious choice? Maybe, but this song, to me, is how Chelly started. It's their song. :)**

**Drop me a review - they rock my entire world.**

**Until next time, my lovelies.**


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